overcharge
Americanverb (used with object)
-
overcharges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
overcharged,
past participle, past
-
overcharging
present participle
-
to charge (a purchaser) too high a price.
When the manager realized we'd been overcharged, she gave us a credit for the difference.
-
to fill too full; overload.
-
to exaggerate.
to overcharge the importance of ancestry.
verb (used without object)
-
overcharges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
overcharged,
past participle, past
-
overcharging
present participle
noun
-
a charge in excess of a stated or just price.
-
an act of overcharging.
-
an excessive load.
verb
-
to charge too much
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(tr) to fill or load beyond capacity
-
literary another word for exaggerate
noun
-
an excessive price or charge
-
an excessive load
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
overchargesimple
-
overchargessimple
-
have overchargedperfect
-
has overchargedperfect
-
am overchargingprogressive
-
are overchargingprogressive
-
is overchargingprogressive
-
have been overchargingperfect progressive
-
has been overchargingperfect progressive
Past
-
overchargedsimple
-
had overchargedperfect
-
was overchargingprogressive
-
were overchargingprogressive
-
had been overchargingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overcharge
Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325; see origin at over-, charge
Explanation
If a shopkeeper overcharges you, they ask you to pay too much for something. To overcharge isn't very honest, but it's not usually illegal either. Sometimes it's obvious that someone is trying to overcharge you: if the taxi driver announces that you owe her a hundred dollars after driving a route that usually costs about twenty, you can call that a blatant overcharge. In other cases, you may not realize until much later. It's not uncommon for salespeople to overcharge tourists, for example, making them pay too much money because they don't know any better.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“It is reprehensible to overcharge and take advantage of wildfire victims who were in desperate need of housing as they fled their homes from raging fires last year,” Los Angeles County Dist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
C. Meat packers are using “their position as middlemen to overcharge grocery stores and, ultimately, families.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2025
The lack of transparency enables PBMs to overcharge patients and health plans.
From Salon ● May 31, 2025
Due to this capture, Google is able to overcharge text-ad clients and shroud its actual terms in secrecy in a way that it hasn’t with more visually oriented ads.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2024
Already what is known in California as a "weather breeder" seemed to overcharge the senses, and even as Isabel left the foothills for the the homeward down-grade spin she felt a change.
From The Higher Court by Mary Stewart Daggett
And earlier this year, a jury found that Live Nation was an illegal monopoly, following years of criticism that the company stifles competition and overcharges fans, but analysts say a breakup is unlikely.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
“The companies pulled their punches, and one company was left being the sole bidder on the contract and that involved a lot of overcharges to the good people of Texas,” Slater said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025
“It overcharges people for the right to defend themselves in court.”
From Salon ● May 23, 2025
It seeks compensation for overcharges, plus fees and other damages, and a trial by jury.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2024
Too much overcharges nature, and turns more into disease than nourishment.
From Many Thoughts of Many Minds A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age by Louis Klopsch
If it did pay dividends on watered stock, the public assumed it was being overcharged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
The jury also found that Live Nation overcharged fans by $1.72 per concert ticket.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 16, 2026
In 2020 the FCC fined T-Mobile $200 million after investigators determined its recently acquired Sprint subsidiary had overcharged Lifeline.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026
Kim Kardashian’s fashion brand must pay $200,000 to settle allegations that it overcharged customers over a five-year period.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
One time I tried to explain a cable TV bill to my mom when she thought she had been overcharged.
From "How Dare the Sun Rise" by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
I believe this is a legitimate case of timeshare overcharging.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 27, 2026
A group of states accused the company of overcharging music fans and pressuring venues to use its dominant ticketing service, Ticketmaster.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
In 2012, Walmart agreed to pay $2.1 million for allegedly overcharging customers in California and failing to comply with a 2008 judgment that required the company to resolve errors in pricing at checkout stands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2025
He told BBC London that Heathrow is overcharging for many items.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2025
The prosecutor is also free to file more charges against a defendant than can realistically be proven in court, so long as probable cause arguably exists—a practice known as overcharging.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
